


A bad word

by Startanewdream



Series: Jily Lives AU [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bigotry & Prejudice, Drabble, F/M, Family Fluff, Gen, Good Parent Lily Evans Potter, James Potter & Lily Evans Potter Live, Young Harry Potter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-24
Updated: 2021-01-24
Packaged: 2021-03-16 10:27:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28954968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Startanewdream/pseuds/Startanewdream
Summary: For the prompt: Harry and Lily discussing her being a Muggleborn.Harry asks his mother what "Mudblood" means.
Relationships: Harry Potter & Lily Evans Potter, Harry Potter & Potter Family, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Series: Jily Lives AU [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116542
Comments: 11
Kudos: 119





	A bad word

Her hand is writing nonstop, registering her latest discovery, and Lily is so immersed in that feeling of uncovering secrets of potions - new combinations for old ingredients, the closest to science she can find in magic - that she doesn’t immediately register Harry calling her.

‘Mom?  _ Mom _ !’

‘No chocolate before dinner, Harry, you know the rules’. she says vaguely, still concentrating on writing down the effects of mixing moonstone and wolfsbane.

‘No, I don’t…. there is chocolate?’

‘What?’

‘I want to talk to you’.

‘I’m working now, Harry, you know when mom is busy you have to -’

‘What is a mudblood?’

That makes her lose control of her hand, making a line with the quill across the parchment. Her hand trembles as she carefully rests the quill, raising her eyes to find a pair of green eyes that are the exact tone of hers.

Harry’s voice is nothing like Snape’s, but she can somehow hear the echo of her former best friend calling her mudblood a lifetime ago.

‘Where did you hear that word, Harry?’, she asks quietly, but Harry seems to know something is wrong because he recoils, unsure.

‘Is that an adult word? I am  _ sorry,  _ I didn’t know -’

‘That’s okay, Harry, I am not mad at you’, Lily assures, forcing herself to smile at her son. She offers her arms. ‘Come here’.

Harry doesn’t hesitate before rounding her desk and approaching her. Lily puts him on her lap, caressing softly his hair, making it messy in the way Harry likes, to copy his father’s style.

He is looking at her curiously, and Lily wishes she didn’t have to explain the hard reality of the world - of her world - to her six-years-old son.

‘Who said that word, Harry?’, Lily asks again, softly.

‘I heard today when dad and me -’

‘“Dad and I”, Harry’, she corrects him with a gentle smile. Harry blushes.

‘Yes, when we were at Diagon Alley today. Someone told Dad was a disgrace for marrying a mud…  _ that word _ ’.

Lily bits her lips. James hadn’t said anything to her, even though he had returned home from their trip with a closed face. She should have known something had happened -

‘Dad was going to fight the man’, Harry whispers, looking as if he is sharing a secret. ‘But Uncle Moony didn’t let him. He said - he said Dad was just going to get in trouble’.

‘Remus is always the most reasonable’.

‘I don’t want Dad to be in trouble!’

‘He is not, Harry, it’s fine’, Lily says reassuringly. ‘Your father was just upset. That man said a very bad word’.

‘But you are not a disgrace… you are  _ mom _ . Dad is happy marrying you!’

‘Of course he is. It’s just… Some people don’t think he should have married me’. When Harry looks mutinous, she touches the point of his nose. ‘Let me explain to you, ok?’

She waits until Harry nods silently, his eyes big and confused and so pure that Lily hates more than ever all the prejudice there is in the wizarding world.

‘Do you know how I told you about my parents? Your grandparents?’. He nods once more. ‘They were Muggles’.

Harry furrows his brows, concentrating.

‘They always took you and Aunt Petunia to the zoo’, he says slowly, remembering one of her stories. Lily smiles softly. ‘And they bought you ice cream at the exit’.

‘I always chose chocolate ice cream’.

‘Like me! It’s my favourite’.

‘Yes’, she agrees, tickling him, making Harry giggle. She waits until he stops laughing, then she sighs. ‘Well, because they were Muggles, I’m what wizards called muggleborn. That just means my parents weren’t magical folks’.

‘Does it make a difference, being a muggleborn?’

She can hear the echo of herself making that same question years ago. Severus had told her it didn’t. He had lied.

It wouldn’t be his last lie.

‘It  _ shouldn’t _ make a difference, Harry’, she says slowly. ‘Every witch and wizard is capable of doing magic, and magic doesn’t care about your surname or your blood or who your parents are. But…’

‘But?’

‘But some people don’t see it like that. Some people think they are better than others because all their past relatives were magic too’. Lily swallows hard and looks at Harry deeply in his eyes. ‘They are  _ wrong,  _ Harry. No one is better than anyone. Every witch and wizard should be equal’.

‘There are people that don’t like you?’, Harry asks in a whisper.

Lily closes her eyes briefly and she can remember the first time she understood the snickers, the contempt in other people’s eyes when they looked at her.

‘Yes’, she admits. ‘Do you remember when we told you about the war? About the man that gave you that scar?’

Harry acquiesces quietly, trembling slightly. Lily and James had told him only the basics of Voldemort, the bare minimum he needed to understand where his scar came from.

‘Well, one of the things he defended was that wizarding blood was different, that muggles were lesser than wizards. And that muggleborns like me were worthless because of their Muggle parents'.

‘But you are a great witch!’, Harry cries indignantly. ‘You make all these spells and potions and -’

‘That’s the point, Harry’, she cuts him off gently. ‘I  _ am  _ as magical as your dad, as much as anyone. It doesn’t matter who my parents were, but that doesn’t mean I’m ashamed of them. I loved them very much and I’m  _ glad  _ to be muggleborn. It means I belong in both worlds. Like you’.

‘I am in two worlds too?’

‘Of course you are’, she assures him, smiling at her son. ‘And everyone is worth the same, magical or not, witch and wizard or any other creature. No one is better than anyone’.

Harry agrees with his head, looking as thoughtful as a six-years-old can be.

‘But those who are prejudiced use Mudblood as a slur for muggleborns like me’.

‘It’s a bad word’, says Harry solemnly.

‘Yes, it is’.

‘I won’t let anyone call you that’, Harry promises. ‘You or anyone else’.

Lily hugs him.

‘Just don’t get into trouble for it’, she asks. ‘Those people - those prejudiced people - are not worth it’.

‘The secret, Harry’, she hears someone saying from the door, and she turns to see James smirking there, ‘is that if no one knows it was you, you won't be in trouble’.

Lily raises her eyebrows, but doesn’t say anything.

‘Sirius just arrived. He is asking for his favourite godson’, James adds, and Harry lets out a happy cry.

‘Can I go, Mom?’, he says. She nods, and he kisses her on the cheek before jumping, running towards the door.

James just messes with his son’s hair as Harry passes through him, and he closes the door of her office.

'Did you just tell our son that he shouldn't get caught?', Lily asks, the corners of her mouth almost lifting up in a smile.

'Well, I wasn't going to say he shouldn't defend his mom against bigotry', James ponders, sitting on her desk.

'Why do I think you took your own advice?'

'Oh, Lily, you hurt me', he says playfully, tucking her hair behind her ear. 'What would you think I have anything to do with Travers' office being inundated for a week?'

'Who said anything about Travers?'

'Not me. In fact, the less I think about that wanker, the better'.

'Language, James', she teases, smiling despite herself. 'That's an adult word. What if Harry hears it?'

'Harry is pretty busy right now, since Sirius owned me a favour or two', he whispers, bending down to press his lips softly against her neck. 'How about we do some adult things?'

The door of her office stays closed for a very long time.

* * *

There is an expression on James' face when he returns home that Lily has long ago learnt to associate with a prank.

'What?', she asks, raising her eyebrows.

James grins.

'I had the most fascinating chat with Minerva today, when I dropped by to deliver her my recent articles'.

'Yeah?'

'She told me a curious tale. Apparently Lucius Malfoy's son's new broomstick had to be sent to repair because someone managed to dispel the cushioning charm'.

'How come?'

'Yeah… just for curiosity, Harry asked me a week ago about dispelling charms'.

'What?!', Lily cries, just as James' smirk increases. 'Harry is supposed to behave, James, especially after that story with the flying car -'

'Apparently, the Malfoy boy called Hermione Granger a "Mudblood" one week ago', James adds, in a nonchalant voice.

Lily blinks.

'I see. I suppose no one discovered who tampered with the broomstick?', she asks, her voice as calm as his now.

James denies with his head.

'Too bad then', she replies, returning to her book. 'I guess we will always wonder who did it'.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed, please let a comment with your thoughts!
> 
> Prompts are always available @Tumblr :)


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